The World to Come

Combined Naomi’s performed at Woolly Mammoth and Theatre J, 29 times. Her resume in DC includes The Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, Signature, Fords, Round House, Folger and regionally the Guthrie and Goodman Theatres, Cleveland Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Indiana Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Village Theatre, Maltz Jupiter and the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Her voice over work includes NPR, PBS, Discovery Channel, and the Smithsonian. She’s received three Helen Hayes Awards, numerous nominations, the Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship, the Anderson-Hopkins Award, and a DC Arts Individual Artist grant. Full Theatre/ Film/TV and Coaching credits, visit naomijacobson.com

MICHAEL RUSSOTTO is thrilled to return to Woolly Mammoth, where he is a Company Member. Favorite Woolly roles include Alexandra in She Stoops to Comedy (HH Nom), Will in A Bright New Boise (HH Nom), and Lou in Lenny and Lou. Most recently, Michael appeared at Olney Theatre Center in Paul Morella’s one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol. In 2025 Michael won a Helen Hayes Award (Outstanding Lead Performer/Play) for his portrayal of Chauncey Miles in the 1st Stage production of The Nance. Other favorite roles include Morrie in Tuesdays with Morrie (Theater J), Juror # 3 in Twelve Angry Men (Ford’s Theatre), and Monsignor Ryan in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, with the late Malcom Jamal Warner (Arena Stage). Michael has performed regionally at Cleveland Play House, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Studio Theatre and The Folger Shakespeare Theatre. Film and television work includes Playing Through, The Battle of Bloody Lane, Death of a Nation, and the recently released Indy Film A Civil Civil Servant. Michael can be heard on the L.A. Theatre Works recording of Seven Days in May, with Ed Asner. He has also narrated hundreds of audio books for Books on Tape and The Library of Congress.

Claudia has worked mostly Off Broadway but also in LORT theater, independent films, and TV. She thanks her teachers at the Yale School of Drama as well as her parents for modelling hard work, bravery, humor, reliability and caring. She is very thankful for her incredible daughters and her very dear friends, especially Lili. In honor of Yael Artzi, a true Sabra. With gratitude to Howard Shalwitz, Danica Rodriguez and Mina Morita. And to Emily Dickinson for writing a favorite poem: “I should Not Dare to Leave my Friend.” Finally, she would like to thank you for supporting the theater.

Ro Boddie (Nurse) is proud to be making is Woolly Mammoth debut! His Off Broadway credits include Socrates at The Public and Seize The King at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Select DC credits include The American Five at Fords Theatre, Paradise Blue at Studio Theatre, Comedy of Errors at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Topdog/Underdog, The Mountaintop, Radio Golf and The Tempest at Round House Theatre, and Tempestuous Elements at Arena Stage. Select TV credits include Godfather of Harlem, Run The World and The Good Wife. Ro is a proud alum of UNCSA ’09. On social media @roboddieart (Instagram)

Ali Viterbi is a playwright, television writer, and educator. Her play In Every Generation received its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater in 2022 and its west coast premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2023. Her work has been developed and/or commissioned by Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Round House Theatre, National New Play Network, San Diego REP, Carthage College, HERE Arts Center, and The Barrow Group, among others. Ali won the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and has developed projects in TV with AMC, Anonymous Content, and Viacom/CBS. She is a recipient of a Macdowell Residency and was a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room. Ali received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Playwriting from UC San Diego.

Howard Shalwitz is honored to return to Woolly Mammoth where he served as Artistic Director for nearly four decades, and to Theater J where he has taught for the past four years. He has directed and performed at Woolly, in New York and across the country. Among his favorite shows: Kvetch (with Naomi Jacobson), She Stoops to Comedy (with Michael Russotto), and Stupid Fucking Bird and Zombie: The American (with designs by Colin K. Bills, Misha Kachman, & Ivania Stack).  In 2014 Howard won the prestigious Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to new American plays. Since 2018, he has served as Associate Director of the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD) where he leads a multi-year project to connect theatre leaders in the US and Poland.

Colin K Bills (he/him) is a Woolly Company Member and Board Trustee. He has lit over fifty-five productions at Woolly including Gloria, An Octoroon, Stupid Fucking Bird, The Convert, Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Oedipus el Rey, Clybourne Park, Dead Man’s Cell Phone. His most recent work in the DMV includes In Clay at Signature, A Case for the Existence of God at Mosaic, The Inheritance at Round House. He has won three Helen Hayes Awards and is a recipient of a Princess Grace Theater Fellowship. He has taught design at Howard University and is a graduate of Dartmouth.

MISHA KACHMAN is a Company Member who has designed numerous Woolly productions including My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion, Fairview, An Octoroon, Marie Antoinette, Kiss, Stupid Fucking Bird, A Bright New Boise, and Fever/Dream. He has also worked at Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Court, Kennedy Center, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Signature, Seattle Opera, Seattle Rep, Studio, Syracuse Stage, Theatre for A New Audience, and Wilma Theater, among many other companies. Misha is a recipient of Helen Hayes Awards for his Woolly designs of My Mama and Chad Deity.

she/her DC AREA: Theater Alliance: Covenant , FireWork, The Trans-Atlantic Time Traveling Company; Kennedy Center/Theater Alliance: Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (Associate Scenic Designer); Gala Hispanic Theatre: Botiquín de Boleros;  Solas Nua: Lie Low; Imagination Stage: Tomas and the Library Lady;  Folger Theatre: Twelfth Night (Associate Scenic Designer); Washington Stage Guild: Faithless; Prince George Community College: Twelfth Night. REGIONAL: Portland Playhouse: Passing Strange; A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute: Orlando Paladino. INTERNATIONAL: Teatro Presidente, El Salvador: Saturday Night Fever, Chicago, Aladdin Ballet, Awaken (Circus). EDUCATION: MFA in Scenic Design, University of North Carolina School of the Arts. AWARDS: Helen Hayes Award Winner for Outstanding Scenic Design (Covenant, Theater Alliance) giselaestrada.com

Kelly Colburn (Projections Designer) (she/they/k): is a multidisciplinary artist working in the DC Area (Piscataway/Nacotchtank lands). She is the Executive Director at Flying V, a Media/Projections faculty member at The University of Maryland College, a five-time Helen Hayes nominee, two-time Helen Hayes recipient, and a two-time Barrymore nominee. RECENT: The Colored Museum (Studio Theatre), Postcards from Ihatov (1st Stage), ¡VOS! (Two River), A Summer Day (Wilma), The Inheritance (Roundhouse), The Invisible Boy (Children’s Theatre of Charlotte), The Snowman and the Snowdog (Imagination Stage). OFF-BROADWAY: american (tele)visions (Lucille Lortel Nominee, Henry Hewes Nominee).

Sonia Fernandez (she/her) is a dramaturg, administrator & producer specializing in new work. She is happiest in a new play process. Currently serving as Director of New Work at Woolly, Sonia was previously interim Artistic Director & prior to that Associate Artistic Director of Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Favorite production dramaturgy credits include unseen by Mona Mansour at OSF, the world premiere of Don’t Eat the Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González, The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh at Magic, Quixote Nuevo by Octavio Solis at Cal Shakes, and the world premiere of Incendiary by Dave Harris at Woolly. She is the proud mama of two awesome humans, two terriers & 47 plants.

Aysha Zackria (she/her) is a queer Pakistani-American dramatist, writer, and musician, currently serving as the Lin-Manual Miranda Family New Work and Artistic Producing Fellow at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. ASSISTANT DRAMATURGY: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents Into a Dollar); Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Akira Kurosawa Explains His Movies and Yogurt (With Live and Active Cultures!). PLAYWRITING: Peregrine Theatre Company: Pillow Fortress; Theatre Alliance: Pillow Fortress Excerpt Reading. City Theatre: Proximity Excerpt Reading. EDUCATION: BFA in Dramaturgy, Carnegie Mellon University. AWARDS: LMDA / KCACTF Student Dramaturgy Award and National Dramaturgy Fellowship; Michael Gifford Award; Andrew Carnegie Society Scholarship. OTHER: Literary Fellow, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (2024). Script Editor, Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts (2020-2023). Ayshazackria.com

Ksenya received her PhD and MFA degrees from the prestigious St. Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition, her postgraduate study was in pedagogic and child psychology. Ksenya has been teaching for over thirty years and her specialties include graphics, painting, sculpture, puppet and marionette design and technology. Ksenya was a founder and the artistic director of WizArts Productions, Inc. and Elf Theatre. Previously, she served as the artistic director of Classika’s Green Parrot Puppet Theatre, where she introduced her audiences to all types of puppets: from marionettes to life-size, table, object, rod, Bunraku, planchette, and shadow puppets.. She was also Classika’s resident set and costume designer, where she was the designer for over twenty productions. Her shows The Little Red Riding Hood, which has been presented at the Shanghai International Experimental Theatre Festival, Human Rights Festival and Capital Fringe festival in 2010, and The Killer, shown at the Ionesco International Workshop Festival in Sinai, Romania, in the summer of 2009. Ksenya worked as a Puppet designer at Wooly Mammoth Theater, North Virginia Opera, Arena Stage, Round House Theater, Adventure theater, Theater J, Arlekin Players Theater, Wilma Theater. Her works include Rigoletto, Traviata, La Villi, Briscula, Hansel and Gretel, Mozart and Salieri, Tzar’s Bride, Sadko, We Proud to Present, Minor Character, Les Contes D’Hoffmann,Le nozze Di Figaro , Summer Day, Snow Queen.

Theater J: The Berlin Diaries, Prayer for the French Republic, The Hatmaker’s Wife, Hester Street; Constellation Theatre Company: Constellations; Shakespeare Theatre Company: The Lehman Trilogy; STC Academy: Henry IV Part One, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Arden of Faversham, Romeo and Juliet, The Rover, Cymbeline.

Fe Miranda (they/them) was born and raised in Washington, DC and is of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian descent. They are a stage manager, arts administrator, and musician with a passion for making art that is accessible to underrepresented groups. WOOLLY MAMMOTH: ho ho ho ha ha ha ha, The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar), Dead Inside, Akira Kurosawa Explains…, It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, GUAC, The Second City: Dance Like There’s Black People Watching, The Comeuppance. DC AREA: NextStop Theatre Company: Reefer Madness, In the Heights; 4615 Theatre Company: coon; INSeries Opera: The Magic Flute. EDUCATION: George Mason University: BA in Music, Minor in Arts Management. OTHER: Current Lin-Manuel Miranda Family Production Fellow, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. @famqui

Danica Rodriguez (she/her) is a Washington D.C./New York-based casting director & theatremaker dedicated to celebrating the voices of the historically underrepresented. NEW YORK: Off-Broadway: The Public Theater: cullud wattah (World Premiere), Romeo y Julieta, Soft Power, for colored girls…, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare in the Park), Mojada, Ain’t No Mo’ (World Premiere); The Civilians: El Condor Magico. DC AREA: Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: The Great Privation, The Sensational Sea Mink-ettes (World Premiere), Incendiary; STC: Guys and Dolls, Merry Wives, Frankenstein, Kunene and the King, Leopoldstadt, Babbitt, Comedy of Errors, The Matchbox Magic Flute, Macbeth, The Lehman Trilogy, As You Like It, Macbeth In Stride, Evita, Here There Are Blueberries, King Lear, Jane Anger, Much Ado About Nothing, Red Velvet, Our Town, The Merchant of Venice. Folger Theatre: Twelfth Night, Our Verse in Time to Come; The Kennedy Center: The Day You Begin; and others. AWARDS: Theatre Communications Group 2021 Rising Leader of Color. PERSONAL: Founding Trainer with Broadway for Racial Justice Casting Directive; Training: Dartmouth College: BA in Film & Media Studies. @danicarodriguezcasting | danicarodriguez.com.